Tale of Spices - Rosemary
by Somewhere-Out-Here
Summary: Nami woke up. Everything is different. She doesn't know where she is or when, how she came here and where to go. And this happens multiple times. She tries to escape this journey, these worlds or dimensions, but soon realizes that she can't. And all that is left are these things she can remember. Begin of the Tale of Spices Trilogy.
1. Prologue

**Tale of Spices - Rosemary**

**Prologue**

_"There's Rosemary for you, that's for remembrance! Pray you, love, remember!"  
~William Shakespeare (Ophelia in 'Hamlet')_

The time of traveling is over. It must be. It just has to be over.

She doesn't know how long she traveled and ventured to live in other centuries, worlds, dimension or whatever _all _this she had experienced was called, but she knows that this is finally over. Or at least she did hope so. Well, she knew where she was coming from and some time ago she did know what her aim was. But now, far away from the reality she did once lived in her journey had to end. It's best this way. For her and for everybody else.

She had to admit a few things. First of all: She could have landed on a much worse place at at a worse time. This was the closest to what she once had. Second: She could have been surrounded by people she hates. Or who hate her. Instead she has found a new family. Her family. Or at least something like that since she doesn't know, that she is somehow part of this family. The biggest so to say. But they do their best to get her used to it. And everybody is doing it in such beautiful ways, that it sometimes brings her to tears. But she wouldn't admit it. Never. And last: She likes it. Quiet much. She is loved. She is needed. What else should she say?

'So, why not staying here?', she asked herself a few times. Or quiet a lot times. As much as she is trying to get accomplished to this, her mind is still betraying her. But why shouldn't it do so?

She may know where she was coming from. Oh yes, how she does. But right now she is wondering, whether or not her old life was just a dream since she clearly doesn't know the differences between waking and dreaming, between here and there, now and then anymore. Or, were there even differences? Right now, she supposes, there won't be many anymore.

'Stop it!' she is calling in her mind, knowing that her thoughts were wandering too far, again. She hat to collect the pieces of her everything that is inside of her brain, put them together and just _live._ Her memories of what once was are a pain she doesn't need.

'And I promised it!'

Yes, she did. She did, knowing how hard it is going to be for her. Too hard, she had to admit. Far too hard.

"You are using to much rosemary." he said with gentle voice, as he entered her mind while his gentle hands travel towards hers, to stop her from whatever she was doing.

"But it's like I am always doing it." she said but then noticed the little greenish pile on top of the dish the was trying to make. She became quiet.

'That's what you get when try to remember things, you shouldn't.' she reminds herself with a mix of sadness and anger piling up inside of her. And it is spilling over. To fast, like a wave, splashing in the wind against a rock and vanishing but still staying were it was.

But before she or even _he_ could stop her, she started to remember every step she took before she landed here.


	2. 1: Criminal Tango

**Tale of Spices - Rosemary**

**Chapter 1 – Criminal Tango**

Her head did hurt. It felt like her brain was smashed against rocks in a storm. Over and over and over again. And she couldn't stop it, no matter how much she tried. All the time her body felt limb, dead and she couldn't move. She tried to move her arms. Nothing. Her legs. Still the same. She couldn't even open her eyes.

Nami didn't know what happened but she felt as if she had experienced a long night, filled with alcohol while the waves were gently rocking the Thousand Sunny beneath her. Well, better to say a night with barrels filled to the very edge with alcohol, high percentage of course, and the ship shaken by a storm.

But Nami knew that she hasn't drunk anything the last night. And she did know that she was currently not on the Sunny.

Where ever she might be – it didn't smell like the salt of the ocean, it wasn't rocking because of waves and it was far too calm. There was no sound of the wind. There was no sound of the water. And there were no annoying boys playing outside, screaming, shouting and laughing like madmen.

She had to be on an island. Of course she had to be! There wasn't any other possibility. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper might be playing, somewhere in a wood or on the shore by the ocean. Sanji will be looking on the market for ingredients for new dishes. Zoro was training. Robin was reading. Brook would be playing his violin while Franky was working on the ship. Everybody was letting her sleep, just as long as long as she wants, not waking her.

But still she couldn't sum up the reason why she felt just like this.

"Wake up!", some familiar voice called her, while her body was shaken by some unknown source. "It's already dark outside. We have to go!"

She was shooting up. A mistake. Her head felt smashed and as she opened her eyes, she could only see shark light. So she hid her head underneath the pillow she was laying on, holding it with her hands in place, while the source is still trying to wake her up.

Whoever this was – he would get such a kick in his ass that he will feel sorry even one year later.

"Now wake up!", said to muffled voice, before her pillow and her blankets were ripped away from her, leaving her to the cool air of the outside.

So, again, she opened her eyes, the light blending her again. But this time a dark and mighty shadow towered over her. She knew its form and the person it belongs. But with the missing details and her missing brain functions, she couldn't quiet lay a finger on it. So Nami blinked a few times.

But with the last blink, he was gone again. Yet she could finally make out the room, she was currently in.

A horrible place: The curtains were torn. The wood of the shelves was rotten and its coatings dissolved form it's body. There wasn't any color or wallpaper on the wall – it was just the blank wall. Many of the tiles on the floor were broken and you could see the plain floor underneath it. But what disgusted her most was, that she laid on a old, filthy mattress, with no covers or even a bed frame.

"What...?", was the one thing Nami could make up in her mind. "How...?", was the other. "Where...?", was the final thing.

This was strange. It was foreign for her. And it was totally wrong.

She knew, that she shouldn't be here. She should be on the Thousand Sunny. Or at least on a island with beautiful architecture and people they had helped. But she shouldn't be here... But..., where should she be then? She couldn't remember the last thing, before she woke up here. She didn't remember the route, nor did she knew the next island they were traveling to. She didn't even know, what the last island was, where they landed on. All she knew was, that she shouldn't be here.

Maybe she was kidnapped again? Kidnapped by some rival pirate crew, since she was such a brilliant navigator and they wanted to harm the Straw Hat's with this plan. So, if it's true, then it won't take long, until somebody will walk through the nearby door, to save here. Nami knew, it would be Sanji. He is always on the front in some Nami rescue mission. Out of love or some kind of shit he is always claiming. Well, it didn't matter, just as long somebody would finally help her.

"Could you please get your little, sassy ass up, Miss? It won't be night all day long. Get yourself ready and dressed!" It was silent for a minute, while she was looking for the source of his voice. Then Nami saw him. And she knew, that something was clearly wrong. Too wrong.

Franky, a cyborg as always stood with his arms crossed next to her feed, looking down at her. His eyes were covered by dark sunglasses, while he wore a matching suit. It remembered her much of the thing he wore while encountering Shiki in his base.

Nami was stunned.

"Franky?! Where are the others? What are we doing here? Why aren't we on the Sunny? What-" she began to blurt out, but was stopped when Franky hold one hand up to stop her.

"What are you talking about, Nee-chan?", he asked her, clearly concerned and irritated. "Who do you mean with 'The others'? And what is the 'Sunny'? What's wrong with you? You haven't been drinking for a long time. So that can't be the problem. Did you have a bad dream?"

Stunned she looked at him.

"The others? Luffy, Zoro and Sanji? Robin? Chopper, Brook and Usopp? The Sunny? The ship you did build? The freaking question is not, what's wrong with me, but what's wrong with you!"

He looked at her for some moments until he merely shook his head. "Dreams you have, girlie. Something is clearly wrong with _you_. Go and see the doctor some day. He will help you. Now get up! We have to hurry."

"But, Franky! What-"

"Hurry!"

And she did hurry.

Nami went to the nearby bathroom and after she had explored it, with disgust, after she had seen the toilette, she found some cloths, which were probably for her. It was a nice black blouse with matching skirt Even some underwear was hanging on the hangers. Since she only wore a white, short nightdress and this Franky told her so, she changed. It was fitting her figure perfectly, but it the missing colors would make this outfit impossible for her to wear, normally. But in any other case, Franky would have been more Franky and not just somebody who looks like Franky.

After deciding to put her long hair up in a ponytail, Nami left the bathroom to meet Franky who is already waiting next to the door for her.

"Finally. Now put on some shoes and here, don't forget these." he said while giving her a pair of sunglasses.

"What are we doing?" "What we are always doing at this time of day. Why are you asking?" Nami looked at him with a serious expression on her face.

'He must be kidding!', she thought. 'This is all just a strange dream! I will wake up soon. So just travel along.'

So they sat there. In something black and moving. Made out of metal with seats inside. Nami had never seen something like this before. It wasn't some kind of ship. Well, maybe a land-ship. There are many outside while they traveled one specific way with a white line between two sites. There are other land-ships like these: Other colors. Other shapes. Other sizes.

'Franky did call them cars...', Nami recalled in her mind. It was quiet a strange thing. You had to sit the whole time, while there is this strange belt, which holds you in your place. Nami admitted, that she preferred the normal ships over these cars, but as long as she was dreaming, she had to take it as granted.

But, this thought crossed her some time ago, maybe they are on some mission, to encounter an evil king to save a country. And everybody from their crew has a special role – only that she can't remember her own role for some reason.

"And you don't know, who Luffy is?" she asked, hoping to get some information out of him. "I really don't know, what you are talking about." Franky answered calmly, not even looking at her, while his eyes were fixed on this so called 'road' all the time. Hell, she missed the wind and the water, which were determining their ways and their routes. This was much too fixed and, yes, even too boring. She was a navigator! She needed the weather and a freaking, real ship. And water, with waves and its wetness. But not this...

"What about Usopp? Long Nose? You two always build crazy machinery." "Nope." "Do you at least remember the Thousand Sunny? Our ship we travel on? The ship you build for our crew?"

For a short moment he looked at her, before he returned his gaze to the road. "You. Doctor. Tomorrow. Something is clearly wrong with you." "No, something is wrong with you!" "You are not the one, who should consider somebody as mentally irritated! You are talking about people and things as if you traveled towards another dimension. But you haven't! You are still here and we are still doing our job. Get over it and stop believing in your strange fantasy world with these 'Devil Fruits' and strange snails, which you use to communicate. Those things don't exist and never will exist."

Nami pressed her lips together, clawing her nails in her tights beneath the skirt, trying to calm her frustration. This was a very confusing dream. She hoped, that she will be waking up soon.

Suddenly this car became slower, while Franky drove it around a corner between two buildings and finally stopped it and shut it down. It was quiet and Nami wondered, what would happen next.

When he opened the belt on his seat, she did the same and when he opened the door on his left and left this car, she did the same.

"What now?" Nami asked, following him towards the rear of this vehicle, watching him as he opened the cover there to reveal a big box. "What we always do." he said, opening it. Inside were do large weapons, heavy and dangerous looking. "Take one." Franky instructed, taking one, leaving the other to her.

With shaky hands she reached out for it. The weapon was still cold, yet heavy.

"Really?", she asked, hoping for the end of her dream, as he closed the car after he took out a big, brown back and began to walk towards the entrance of this little road they were standing in. She followed, until they reached the door towards a bar, which she could tell from some of the flyers in the window and the big neon sight over the entrance. He never answered her.

"Ready?"

No, she clearly wasn't, but it wouldn't help her in any way.

He opened the door and went first inside, while she followed, slowly and carefully.

Yet, everything happened so fast:

Franky screamed: "Money and nobody gets hurt!" Everybody was calling and shouting and trying to get away. But every time somebody got to close to towards the door, where she was still standing bewildered, he shoot in the air. People were lying their wallets on tables, which Franky began to collect in the bag. The bartender gave him all the money that was in the cashbox. Mean words were shouted. And they left as fast as they came.

Nami sat dumbfounded next to Franky in the car.

Stealing money was easy and one of her hobbies. But never with guns. Always silent, hiding in the shadows. Never like this. Never with this Franky. This was wrong. So endlessly wrong.

"Doctor. Urgently." He said, starting the car and leaving towards the road they were coming from.

"I am not going to a freaking doctor! Or at least not just to any doctor other than Chopper!" "And it's starting again." he mumbled under his breath. "Listen. There aren't any elk on this whole planet, which can switch their shape and can speak, walk and act like human." "But there is! He's the ships doctor. Our friend." "And there isn't any ship!" "But there is!"

She was getting louder and louder with each second and became more and more frustrated. This was ridiculous and a very bad dream! Franky was looking angry at her. No, not Franky. Something that might look and sound like Franky but clearly isn't.

"Maybe you won't remember them, but I do and-"

Before she could finish the sentence, another car hit the side of theirs, breaking window, the metal twisted. Everything was light and turning and hurting. It was so loud, with screams and the crashing. The strange belt did indeed hold her to her seat. But it didn't stop her from getting hurt.

And finally, just like always in a dream, right when you die, Nami finally woke up.

The Question was just where and when...

**A/N: So, hey, this is the first chapter for my planned 'Tale of Spices' trilogy. I am really looking forward on writing these some time now. Sadly there is right now quiet much to do in university. I try to update as fast as possible.**

**So, I hope you did like it. If you want you can even write a comment^^And if there are really, really bad mistakes in Grammar or writing, please let me know. I need my practice and didn't do anything for like 5 months now in English.**

**Hope you liked it.**

**Somewhere-Out-Here**


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